Utah Utes gymnastics: Another Marsden set to assume head coach title

SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah's gymnastics team opens its 35th season Saturday afternoon at UCLA with the first–ever change in its head-coaching position.

Oh, Greg Marsden — the only head coach the Utes have ever had — remains the head coach.

But on Saturday, his wife, Megan, will share that title in a competition for the first time.

"I feel great about it. It's been a partnership for 25 years or more, and it probably should have happened long ago, but better late than never," said Greg Marsden of Megan's first meet with the title of co-coach.

Greg lobbied Ute athletic director Chris Hill for years to be able to give Megan a title he says she's earned.

"I wore him down," Greg Marsden said. "I think he felt like that's not a model that he's comfortable with. He wants to know who the person is who's responsible, and who he needs to deal with if he has concerns or if he wants to get something done.

"But I think ultimately he realized that's the fair thing in terms of what Megan deserved."

Megan Marsden said she thought about it a lot less than her husband did.

"Getting that title was not important to me," she said, "but (Greg) thought it was important. I deserve it, he says."

And Hill "was good enough to go there."

It does not alter anything about the way the team is run, said Megan.

"Nothing's changed," she said. "Same as it's always been. I just have a title that goes with the situation. I've always been the co-coach in terms of how we run the program. I decide the same things I usually do."

She said the gymnasts "listen to me with the things that they're supposed to listen to me on, and then there's other things they listen to Greg — because he's the heavy, and I don't want to be the heavy."

She admits she'll crack the whip in one department, though: "If they aren't taking care of the apparel I bought them and the shoes, things like that," said the team's director of shopping.

DIFFERENT PATHS: Utah's two best-known senior all-arounders, Daria Bijak and Jamie Deetscreek, came into their final seasons in diverse ways.

Deetscreek spent half of the summer in school and training in the gym, then went home to Pennsylvania for a bit.

"Nothing too exciting," she said.